People today are spending a larger proportion of their lives as grandparents than every before. Anyone hoping to understand modern family life needs to give their role very careful attention, and Geoff Dench’s and Jim Ogg’s book is the most detailed source of information on British grandparents yet.

This book reports on the first national survey of granparenting carried out in Britain, and one of the most comprehensive studies of extended family life in the UK for several decades. Through their investigation, Geoff Dench and Jim Ogg embrace the perspectives of grandchildren and parents as well as of grandparents themselves. Through their research, together they address issues including:

• What part are grandparents expected to play in modern family life?
• How are recent demographic changes affecting their position?
• Do grandfathers and grandmothers perform the role equally?
• What help do grandparents give to working mothers?
• Does the growing instability of parenting ties influence grandparenting?
• Are step-grandparents involved with their grandchildren in the same way as natural grandparents are?
• How far is it possible to compare contemporary grandparenting with that of a generation or so ago?

Their comprehensive research formed part of the British Social Attitudes survey in 1998, and some of its main findings were reported in the 1999/2000 edition of the BSA report.